A Castle Room and Princess Dress for Reeve's Magical Sleepover

A magical reunion with Reeve

It had been five months since my granddaughter Reeve had been to our house

 and she finally was coming back for a two night sleepover!

She always stayed in the guest room, but I had just 

put up a stone arch wall mural and I feared she would miss her old room.

I had the idea to turn the room for her into a castle room, and she would be the princess.

             It was an easy switch to just add princess type details to the bed and the room and voila!

                                               A castle room was waiting for its princess.

                            Next I searched online and found one of my favorite dresses from the 

                           Disney princess movies, Frozen's Princess Anna's coronation dress.  

            It's Scandinavian charm is so much more lovely to me than the icy blue gown that Elsa wears.

                         Sharing a screenshot of the listing on Amazon, 

where they had lots of princess dresses to choose from.

        The quality was amazing and the day Reeve arrived, so too did the package holding her dress.

                                It was time to go upstairs and show her the "Castle Room"!

                         The first thing she did was climb up into the bed with the little princess sheets.

                                I had made big pillows out of The Company Store clearance section.

                   The stone arch paper from Photowall was the perfect backdrop for a Princess bedroom.

                   Then it was off to rediscover all the things she remembered about her Grammy's house.

                                                 Like her Grammy's French Dollhouse....

The view to the city out of the window....

She wore it the entire day and even took her nap in it.

She even went next doors to show Grammy Claire, my MIL how

beautiful her new dress was!

It made a long awaited visit to her Grammy and Grampy's house

a magical experience that we will always remember.

We even had a princess photo shoot.

This coronavirus had made us miss our little one, and I know many

of you are missing your grandchildren too.  Making our reunion a

little more magical was so easy with this $20 dress and the idea that 

she had a princess room in a castle! 

We had such fun dressing up together!!

PS Read the Dramatic Wallpaper Mural post here

I am offering my readers a 25% discount until the end of August 2020

using the discount code amymaisondecor25

Visit Photowall to see all the amazing murals and wall treatments here.

Dramatic Bedroom Mural

Our guest bedroom got a new look with a photo mural.  

We updated the room because our son's best friend, Kai,

 is coming to live with us while they start their college freshman year

together at our home, because of the Coronavirus situation. 

 The boys will be taking over the second floor of the house, 

which will serve as their college dorm!

I wanted the room to have a completely new look for the guys.

These murals are actually photos that are blown up and made into wallpaper strips

 to fit the exact dimension of the wall you want to cover.  I was excited to

collaborate with this Swedish company, PhotoWall, and selected a rustic brick

arch wall called "Arch Ruin" as the backdrop for our guest room

 from the thousands of images they stock. 

Look for my 25% discount code at the end

of this blog post for your own order from Photowall!

The wallpaper mural comes with a package of powdered wallpaper paste. 

Mixed up with a gallon of water in a bucket, it was ready to use in  5 minutes.

  I also ordered the $18 wallpaper tool kit so that I would be all set 

when it was time to rock and roll. 

I have hung a ton of wallpaper in my life yet this set up from PhotoWall is a little bit 

different than anything I had seen before.  The roll of wallpaper is continuous, yet has 

each strip numbered, and you cut it with scissors when you are moving on to the next strip.

Simply cut along the dotted line....

You apply the paste on the wall where the strip will go first, 

so I measured out 18" and made a small pencil mark to give 

me a rough guideline for the paste.

                     Apply the paste with the brush to the section of wall next to the strip you just hung.

                        The paste has some globs in it but they brush right out with the wallpaper brush.

This wallpaper was the easiest paper I had ever hung, 

and I was finished with the wall in just two hours. 

Now it was time to style the room....

First I decided to put the bed on the angle so

we could take in the dramatic backdrop of the wall mural.

But wait....do you remember what it use to look like?

When last used this room it had the dollhouse  as well as the pastoral murals

I had painted on the walls giving the room a feminine romantic artistic effect.

It was very pretty, but wouldn't work for a college guy.

So, before I began my wallpapering I painted 

 over the lilac stripe at the top of the room as well as the murals so 

they wouldn't show any trace of pattern through the wallpaper mural.

And two hours later I had a whole new wall of brick!!!

Everyone loves the new look! 

I was able to reuse many of the things we already had in our home, 

including lamps with burlap shades, some Ralph Lauren beige linen pillow covers

my modern office desk chair, and the grey and white checked curtains from Ballards.

Piper gives it a thumbs up too!

Use  Photowall if you want to create a dramatic new look with ease.

All my readers can get 25% off any order of Photowall products

 until the end of August 2020 by using the promo code

amymaisondecor25 for your discount. 

With everyone at home more than ever now because of the coronavirus,

this is an awesome way to improve everyday spaces in your home.

I am already planning my next mural!

Blue Transferware, Reeve Turns Three and the Lake House

 Summer has arrived and with it comes some decorating changes.

This time as I decorate I am imagining the decor in the lake house

 we will build later this summer in New Hampshire.

Blue and white has been creeping into my palette.

It began with this blue and white checked gingham fabric on the Swedish day bed. 

Next came a few pieces of blue and white transfer ware,

including this unusual large pedestal bowl!

Powdery pale blue and white is my preference, and I have been lucky to find

some beautiful platters and bowls. The trio of botanicals framed in a country check

had been sitting in an antique shop for two years.  I've noticed them with every visit

but didn't grab them until I figured out that blue and white would be part of the lake house look.

For now I have hung them in our kitchen where I plan to hang the platters on the wall.

Custom framed for someone else a few decades ago, they will be enjoyed 

by us in our new home.  Shopping for vintage finds always makes it fun,

as you never know what awaits you on the hunt.

 My granddaughter Reeve turned three at the end of June.

She lives in Maine now on a farm, and is having an idyllic childhood.

 She helps her daddy with fixing up the house with her own tool belt...

And of course there are farm chores.  

One job is to drive her tractor to pick up vegetables gone by

for the compost heap. Look at that head of lettuce!!

 We miss her very much, with the imposed isolation that Covid19

brought to our lives and loves.  But hopefully we will have extended

visits soon, because she is going to be a big sister this month

and we are excited to meet him and share in the joy that grandchildren bring.

I stitched up some big floor pillows for her bedroom out of the cutest sheets

sold at The Company Store.  Princesses in every color standing in front of castles

and riding in fairytale coaches!

 Oh and how about these covered dishes? 

They are large, and I found out they are excellent for using in the 

courtyard at cookouts to keep the flies at bay.

I have three of these now, and they are fantastic!!

We have had a few small gatherings outdoors, and my system is that I use

a table set up next to the grill where I put all the plates and flatware, along

with the various (covered) dishes that have the food, and then grill the main

course.  Then I plate and serve my guests, all the while maintaining sanitizing.

Its been easy to keep social distances and enjoy each others company.

And those covered transferware tureens are awesome for holding the food.

 And one more darling blue and white addition, is this needlepoint pillow 

with the blue and white striped background, done in roses and a cute lab!  

I couldn't resist!

Its been a quiet summer so far,

but I am hoping to report on ground breaking for the lake house soon.

The well has been dug and installed and the final house plans are getting printed.

Next up will be the demolition and site work!

I promise to keep you posted~